A forum for critical analysis of international issues and developments of particular relevance to the sustainable political and socio-economic development of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs).

14 October 2015

Bonaire activist informs Netherlands of violation of the constitutional wishes of the people of Bonaire and St Eustatius

(Translation by OTR

original Dutch below)

To:

The Lieutenant Governor of Public Body Bonaire Executive Council of Public Body Bonaire Island Council of the Public Body Bonaire Mr Ronald Plasterk, Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations

Members of the Standing Committee members of Standing Committee of the 1st and 2nd Chambers

Kralendijk, October 12, 2015

Dear Directors:

In connection with the evaluation of the new state structure, five years later, on October 10, 2015 and the official report released today October 12, 2015, we invite your attention to the following:

October 10, 2010 the country Netherlands Antilles was dissolved and the autonomous countries Curacao and St. Maarten emerged joining Aruba which already had autonomous status. As a result, the islands of Saba, St Eustatius and Bonaire, (known as the BES islands) were (partially) integrated into the Dutch state under Article 134.

In Bonaire and St Eustatius, various groups have continuously protested against this illegal annexation of both islands. St Eustatius is going so far have brought this matter recently to the Decolonization Committee of the United Nations and the reasons:

Netherlands has not complied with resolutions 1514, 1541 and 2625, and the Charter of the United Nations, since 1954 and the dismantling of the former Netherlands Antilles with the consequences that these islands were wrongly removed from the U.N. list of Non-Self-Governing- Territories.

The Netherlands has not adhered to the constitutional wishes of the people of Bonaire and St Eustatius, and have thus made them miserable.

The Netherlands continues its position as a (former ?) colonizing power perpetuating abuse, violating fundamental human rights and interfering unduly with the local political process.

This brings the legality of the (five-year) assessment into question, and we do not accept the official document which placed the islands on the illegal trajectory of the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles, and the illegal incorporation of the BES islands into the Dutch state. This process has no legal basis for the future development of the peoples of the BES islands. This structure of (partial) integration into the Dutch state under article 134 was never a free and conscious choice of our people.